One thing I adore about them is the modulation, and lots of lever travel, so great for controlling descent speed. My previous Hayes and Avids were very on/off, and not much in between

Get the Hopes, they're in a different class to the Shimanos in this respect. I have Tech 3 E4 on one bike, Race Evo M4 on the other - used XT on a hire bike on holiday recently and there was an awful lot more skidding going on!

Hope, any day of the week. Ive had nothing else since the first C2s back in 1997. Never had an issue (appart from getting hot) which was resolved when they did the phenolic pistons. You can still get EVERY spare part for them as well. Shimanos? you`ll have to but the complete item (lever/caliper)

Now just got the Tech 3 E4`s, cant wait to try them......

Oh, BTW, Shimanos squeel like hell all the time....! I know this cos the guys with me have them!

The e4 are more powerful, so you do need a lighter touch than the x2. If you go v2 you can.run the vented rotor, if youre inclined to do 20 minute descents

Braided vs. Plastic hose... better feel in braided, less chance of cutting or nicking, and softer on the frame. Its about £11 more per end, so your choice entirely, either way you wont be disappointed.

Will never go back to Hope. Currently on SLX, Deores and Formula the Ones. Tried a recent set of Hopes on a mates bike recently and they were lacking in power and feel... Hope brakes were good once IME and that was too long ago. Their hubs, hoops and headsets I really like though!

I've got XT on the main bike and Deore on the play bike. I love them, I tried a couple of x2's because I love Hope stuff and love the whole concept/philosophy of Hope ie UK design/manufacture/available spares for years to come, able to rebuild them etc but IMO they lacked power.

Also and this is a very individual thing, having small/medium sized hands I find that the Hope levers just didn't feel comfortable ergonomic wise...the levers on the latest line up of Shimano just feel right.

I was going to say.. I looked at this thread expecting a load of hope are shite, shimano Deore are amazing posts!
Seems the industry has completely changed in the past few weeks...

It's all personal preference. They're all good (now, many older Hopes were a bit hit and miss), it just all comes down to what your preference is.

I bought a set of Formula T1's about 8 months ago to go on my bike, having used nothing but Shimano for about a decade, as I wanted to see what all the fuss was about with them. To be honest, I'm a bit underwhelmed, I actually miss the ferocious bite of Shimano's! The funny thing is that to my mind Deore's feel better than SLX which feel better than XT... Why? XT really don't have any modulation, Deore's are still ferociously sharp if required but you do seem to get a bit more modulation out of them.

Biggest negative for me about Hope brakes is the CNCed lever blades, which aren't at all ergonomic to squeeze IMO. Shimano win hands down on ergonomics.

Thanks for other thoughts, Shimano definitely sound powerful no faff stoppers, but not much in the way of lock up control on descents.

rickon - Member
Tried a recent set of Hopes on a mates bike recently and they were lacking in power and feel
They are totally different to Shimano, which have no power until you reach the bite point, and then loads - but no more the more you pull the lever.

The Tech3 3s have a little power, then the more you pull the lever they have more, then they bite fully, and if you keep pulling they get more and more powerful.

Coming from Shimano brakes you won't be pulling hard enough, and will be expecting them to bite hard way sooner.

On the steep descents around Inners they're amazing, you can easily feather them so you don't lock up, whereas with the Shimanos I was locking up a lot.

I've had the new.. Deore, SLX, XT and XTR - which all felt the same, just the XTR looked nicer than the rest.

In terms of overall power, the Tech3 E4s are immensely powerful, I grabbed a handful in a panic moment, and totalled myself into a ditch.

Panic grab and ditch The feathering part sounds akin to what i'm used to with Formulas.

Brakes so far...

Avid Juicy 5 + 7 = turkey warble, braked ok, but that warble arghghgh
Hayes HFX 9 = on or off, no progressiveness
Formula Oro K18 + then bianco = pad change/bleed faff, not many places would service/repair, but all made up by the modulation on a sublime level, so much control and utmost power when fully on. First brand I was proper wowed by.

So I think Tech 3 E4 or X2, are the two i'm settled on. Merlins seem best i've found so far on price. Still deciding if weight of E4 is worth the extra few quid, and if they may be too powerful!

I went from Oros to Hope X2s last year. Wanted similar modulation with more power and that's what I got. Tried a friend's new Deore too which offered great power but no modulation, very on-off feeling. Feels like I can get the same power from the Hopes but with a lot more control over it.

I fail to understand people who say shimano are either on or off. I have NO problems feathering mine. I've never had shimano brakes fail on me, and with £60 deores on my downhill bike taking care of world cup descents im not sure what more you want from a brake?

I'm running two sets of the new SLX and they give very good service with no problem whatsoever in a year and a half.
I have run two sets of last generation SLX with no problems.
I've run one set of last generation XTs with screaming I could not factor out
I've run two sets of M4s. One had constant screaming in the wet which I could find no way out of, the other set had to have the pistons replaced every two years because they just stuck all the time.
I've run two sets of Avid. They worked ok for a while but were always traumatic when trying to execute the simple task of changing pads, and ultimately the screaming got the better of me. The second set came on a bike and I gave them away...to be fair they didn't offend me, but I didn't give them a chance!
I'd go new Shimano...no, you cannot mend them as readily as Hope...but they don't need mending too often!